A Year in Search: Google Search Trends from 2018
2018 has come to a close and Google has released their most popular search trends for the year. This list is a great way to see how search has changed in Google over time – now that the search engine has turned 20 years old. The annual Year in Search is a good reflection on the changing search trends, the latest cultural moments or events that shaped the most popular searches, but also what we can learn from all of these. Here are the most popular search trends of 2018: 1. People...
Top Social Media Marketing Trends for 2019
Social media marketing often needs to adapt frequently in
order to keep up with the latest trends in the social media landscape – but
this article is not just fleeting information.
Even with all of the changes that this year brought to the
social media; it also brought us some great insights that we can take with us
into 2019, regardless of the platform.
Here’s a closer look at the key trends of the year and how
they will affect your 2019 social media marketing...
5 Last-Minute Holiday Marketing Ideas
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Is your business ready for holiday shopping? If not, it’s not too late to get in some last minute holiday promotions. A recent Gallup report shows that the average American will spend approximately $885 on holiday gifts in 2018, and 33 percent of Americans plan to spend at least $1,000 this holiday season. Meaning there is plenty of sales to be had during this time of year. Here are five holiday digital marketing tactics to use, even now:...
Google Reveals 3 Ways YouTube Habits (and Ads) Have Changed
Video continues to dominate when it comes to social media. In fact, more than 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube alone each day. That’s not even factoring in all of the time spent watching videos on the other major social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Recently, Google who owns YouTube released a statement about the three main ways they’ve seen video viewing habits evolve – and how they in turn have adjusted their advertising for...
Now You Can Join Facebook Groups as Your Business Page
We’ve previously talked about how beneficial a Facebook Group can be in building a community around your brand and interacting with your target audience – not only by joining them but owning your own. Well an exciting new feature has recently been introduced to Facebook Groups – the ability to participate in these communities as your business ! This new development is great news for businesses that want to participate in community building, but don’t have a singular...
How to Use Instagram Hashtags to Increase Visibility for Your Business
There are countless hashtags that your business could use on
Instagram, so how do you know which ones to use to get the best results?
In this article, you’ll learn how to use hashtags in order to gain visibility
and get the best results from your Instagram posts.
Building an Effective
Hashtag Strategy
The basic idea of any social media platform is to connect
with your audience. With Instagram in particular, one way to connect with a
larger audience than just...
A Technical SEO Breakdown for Business Owners
There is a deeper, more technical side to search engine
optimization SEO on your website that is just as crucial, if not more, than quality content and
strong backlinks.
Even if you’re not the one implementing this technical
SEO foundation, it’s still good to have some idea of what is going on in
order to ensure you are getting quality work done on your website.
1. Robots.txt File
If you work with a developer, you may have heard this term
before.
The robots.txt...
LinkedIn Revamps Their Group Experience to Compete with Facebook
LinkedIn has been a powerhouse for professional development and B2B communication for years, but they’ve never been able to fully master how to connect people within Groups. In 2015, the company split off an updated version of Groups into its own standalone app – a move that caused the Groups platform to turn into somewhat of a ghost town. Even though LinkedIn as a whole continued to grow and gain new features, the Groups app seemingly got left behind. In February of this year...
Google Releases Shoppable Image Ads
According to Google, a third of holiday shoppers search for
images before going out to shop.
One-third of holiday shoppers said they searched for images before they
went in store to shop. The growth of street style and online influencers all
show the movement towards looking at lifestyle images for visual inspiration.
For businesses, this makes displaying your product images on
your website a crucial part of your marketing strategy.
Now, Google is making it easier for consumers to...
10 Marketing Tactics for a Successful Black Friday
Updated: Oct. 1, 2018 Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday are the busiest shopping days of the year. And though they may seem far away, if you haven’t started planning your strategy for the holiday shopping weekend - now’s the time. The key to a successful holiday sales season is early planning and consistent marketing, especially as a small business competing against retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Target. Here are 10 marketing tactics to get your...
How to Optimize a Google My Business Listing for Local Search
Not only does your Google My Business GMB listing increase your chances of showing up in the Google Local 3-pack, but when your business is searched for by name, Google often shows a Knowledge Panel that displays detailed information about your company. These details are pulled directly from your GMB listing, as well as from information Google finds from other online sources and user-generated content like third-party reviews, Q&As, user-suggested information, etc.. But how can you...
The Basics of Influencer Disclosure Guidelines
Influencer marketing is a hybrid of old and new marketing tools. Essentially it takes the idea of a celebrity endorsement and merges it into a new, modern social media space. But it’s not only celebrities who are influencers these days. In fact, they can be almost anyone because it’s not how well known they are to the general public that matters, it’s how influential they are within your audience. An influencer can be a popular fashion photographer on Instagram, or a...
3 PPC Mistakes That Are Easy to Avoid
When it comes to pay-per-click PPC management, a simple mistake can easily throw off your budget and affect your bottom line. Even PPC professionals have made at least one of these mistakes at some point, but as long as they’re not repeated, they can be a good learning opportunity. Here are the most common mistakes you can make when it comes to PPC management and how to avoid them: 1. Using the Wrong Targeting One of the most crucial parts of a successful PPC campaign is the targeting...
How to Get More Referrals: Setting Up a Referral Program
Before we delve into the logistics of setting up a referral program, take a second to think about the first place you turn to when you’re looking to purchase a new product or service. Usually you turn to a friend or family for a recommendation. In fact, a study by Nielsen showed that people are 4 times more likely to buy when referred by a friend. Another study done by the Wharton School of Business discovered that the average lifetime value for a new referral client is 16% higher than...
Facebook Ad Targeting Removes Third Party Data Options
Back in 2013, Facebook launched partnerships with major data providers including Datalogix, Epsilon, Acxiom, and BlueKai. This allowed advertisers to target existing and potential customers using detailed third party data. This type of targeting included everything from someone being a homeowner to being a soda drinker. However, things have changed… In July, Facebook announced the removal of Partners categories from its advertising interface; setting an end date of August 15, 2018 for...
21 Easy Ways to Build Your Email List
Did you know that 98% of new traffic leaves your website without converting? They might be interested in your product or service but are just not in the buying stage yet. They could still be researching. However, you have zero chance of selling anything if you don’t have the ability to communicate with someone This is the #1 reason you should be capturing email addresses and building a list. No matter what types of marketing you’re interested in - from direct marketing to email...
Mobile Transactions Continue to Grow... Are You Prepared?
With over 40 percent of online transactions happening on mobile, it’s becoming clear that now more than ever, mobile is truly taking over. Even when the transactions don’t occur on a smartphone, it’s likely that the customer did some initial research using a mobile device. Whether they are searching for information, discovering new solutions for their problems, or reading reviews, customers are using mobile more and more in their customer journey. Even if you already have a...
Video Marketing: What Does the Future Hold?
It is predicted that in 2019, 80% of all internet traffic will come from videos. That might seem like a big leap, but video content is already proving it can grab and hold audiences’ attention as well as create meaningful engagement. In fact, one third of all time spent online is already accounted for by watching videos. With the number of people consuming videos growing, there is another correlation happening – videos are taking over search engine rankings. Forrester estimates...
How Does Voice Search Affect Local Businesses?
The current search engine optimization SEO landscape is already tricky for local business. Google Maps trimmed its business listings down from seven to three listings in search, plus with new features that display information directly in search, people no longer need to visit your website to get the information they need – resulting in fewer clicks to your site. Then add in voice search. 2018 has already been a big year for voice search and virtual assistants, with Alexa making its way...
Has Ad Transparency Gone Too Far? Facebook Starts Showing All Ads That Businesses Are Running
You may have noticed a new section to Facebook pages recently – Info & Ads. This new section added by Facebook is another addition to continuing its transparency efforts regarding Pages and ads. In this new section, you’ll be able to find all the ads that a Page has run across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, as well as Facebook’s partner networks. This means that anyone can go to your Page and see all of the ads you’ve run, whether or not they are part of the...